RINO rage over DPI’s Johnson

I was a little lukewarm about Mark Johnson when I first met him during the 2016 primary campaign. But since he’s been in office, he’s done a bang-up job of getting on the last nerve of all the right people.

The fight over who is running North Carolina’s public schools remains unsettled, with both the State Board of Education and Superintendent Mark Johnson insisting they’re in charge.

Both sides claimed victory in a state Supreme Court decision released in June that upheld a 2016 state law transferring some of the state board’s powers to Johnson. In a statement released Monday night, state board chairman Bill Cobey accused Johnson of overstepping the court decision by working with legislators to pass a new law in June that strips the board of power to oversee the state’s public schools.

Despite the new law, Cobey says the board will continue to pass rules and regulations that govern Johnson’s ability to run the state Department of Public Instruction.[…]

Hmmm. Disregarding the General Assembly and the state’s highest court. *WHAT could possibly go wrong here?*

MORE:

[…] Lindsey Wakely, chief of staff and legal counsel to Johnson, said in a statement Monday night that the state board should accept that it lost the lawsuit.

“Despite losing his lawsuit, Chairman Cobey appears determined to ignore the will of both the General Assembly and the Supreme Court of North Carolina and continue to waste taxpayer dollars on his frivolous lawsuit,” Wakely said. “The state of North Carolina and Mark Johnson won. Cobey lost.

“Mark Johnson will manage the N.C. Department of Public Instruction with the full authorities granted to the superintendent per House Bill 17.” […]

THAT is the way it is SUPPOSED to work.

MORE:

[…] “The Superintendent turned to the General Assembly for new, top-down decision-making powers that would imperil our public school system,” Cobey says in the statement.

Hardy Lewis, Johnson’s attorney in the lawsuit, said that the superintendent didn’t request the new law. But Lewis said that Johnson did support it when he learned that it had been filed.

“Once the General Assembly has spoken on the issue and conferred authority, there’s limits to the oversight that the state board can exercise through rule making,” Lewis said.

But Bob Orr, an attorney for the state board, said his clients feel they need to respond because House Bill 374 would leave the board with no real authority over the state’s public schools.

“It will come to a head when the superintendent says, ‘I’m firing x and hiring y,’ and the state board says, ‘I don’t approve that,'” Orr said. “What happens next?”[…]

Wow. That SOUNDS like the kind of stuff we elected Mr. Johnson to do.

This sounds like a victory for the voters and taxpayers. Influence is being weaned away from a bunch of unelected folks that we can’t hold accountable at the ballot box, and is being transferred to someone we can vote on and hold accountable.

So, our crazy uncles Bob and Bill are miffed because they appear headed toward a constitutionally-based entity with no real power. (Welcome to Dan Forest’s world.)

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7 comments for “RINO rage over DPI’s Johnson”

john steed

July 4, 2018 at 1:26 pm

Bill Cobey has sold his soul to the devil. He was the key player who stabbed conservatives in the back over Common Core. Now he is fighting to hold power for a board that will soon be under the control of radical governor Roy Cooper. Bill Cobey has become the stalking horse for the far left on education.

Bob Orr also seems to be selling out to the “progressive” left on a wide range of issues. He recently went public taking the George Soros position on photo voter ID. The practice of photo voter ID is an international best practice to stop vote fraud that is already used by the majority of American states and nationally by all developed countries in the world except the US and UK (and the UK is in the process of adopting it). Orr has taken an extreme left fringe position on this issue.

Common Core Cobey and Soros Orr; who are they trying to fool claiming to be Republican?

Jackson

July 4, 2018 at 3:38 pm

Cobey is simply one of many awful Pat McCrory appointees. He seems determined to destroy conservative educational reform in North Carolina. RINO Bob Orr has gone completely over to the leftist Democrats. The fact that he is Cobey’s attorney speaks volumes.

RwingLolly

July 5, 2018 at 7:42 am

With this new power, why isn’t Johnson getting RID of Common Core?!

Raynor James

July 5, 2018 at 3:45 pm

At a meeting in June, I heard Mark Johnson say that NC is going to get rid of Common Core!!!

Do you think we should offer to help, give him some time and space in which to work, and then keep checking to see that solid steps are taken to do just that???

Sarah

July 5, 2018 at 7:40 pm

I think Mark Johnson can accomplish his goals if he can get unshackled from Bill Cobey and Bob Orr. It’s time for these two obstructionists to move on and let the Superintendent do the job he was elected to do.

Toxhandler

July 7, 2018 at 8:33 am

Agree with Brant, he’s impressed the heck out of me after being skeptical at the beginning. His spouse is very impressive, too. During the three-way GOP primary, she showed up at my county’s GOP convention, wowed everyone there and then her husband steamrolled the other candidates in my county in that election. Prior to her visit, Johnson was a complete unknown in these parts.

Browny Douglss

July 7, 2018 at 3:16 pm

A salute goes out to Mark Johnson, if he can make “common core” go away he will be THE HERO!!!!